Would you be surprised if I told you more than 97 percent
of the dentists and orthodontists I talk with around the U.S. cannot
tell me how many prospective patients called or walked into their
offices inquiring about services last month? How do you feel about that?
Do you think that is a risky way to run a business? I do. Many of the practices
I speak with are looking for creative ways to attract new patients and most are
shocked when I tell them they have prospective patients they have interacted with at
their offices every day who could have become patients without having to spend
another dime on marketing.
As an MBA student I was taught that it is impossible to manage what you cannot
measure. In orthodontics, we all know in order to provide great treatment results we
must have accurate measurements before, during and after treatment. Yet most doctors
don't do the same kind of measurements when managing their practices' results.
If I was a consultant for hire and you asked me to help increase your patient starts,
the first thing I would ask you is how many people either called into your office
or walked into your office last month inquiring about service. Keep in mind, as I
mentioned earlier, most doctors cannot tell me that number. Therefore, as your consultant,
I would ask you to track it. When doing so, you should tell your front desk
person you want to track this data and be sure you define what qualifies as a call or
walk-in. A caller for example, asking if you take his or her insurance qualifies as a call.
A caller asking if you offer Invisalign qualifies as a call, etc. Once you have established what is going to be measured, you must ask, every day for at least two weeks, for that
number in order for the team to form a habit of collecting the data. After 30 days, I
would ask you to share the data your team collected. Let's say, for argument's sake, 17
people called or walked in inquiring about your services. I would ask you, of those
17, how many actually scheduled appointments? Let's say the answer is eight. I would
ask, how many of those eight patients actually kept their appointments? Let's say that
four of them actually came in. Finally, I would ask, how many of those four appointments
became new patients? In this example, let's say the answer is two. So it breaks
down like this:
Call-in or walk-ins:
|
17 |
Number of appointments:
|
8 |
Number of appointments kept:
|
4 |
Number of new patients: |
2 |
Looking at those numbers, what can you see? Do you see a need for better probing
on the initial call? Maybe some changes in your processes to improve your
"appointment kept" ratio? What about
new patient starts? Is 50 percent a
number you feel good about? After
analyzing the numbers, you can then
train to improve each area described.
After training was completed I would
come back and look at the next 30 days
of data. For this example let's argue
that the number of walk-ins or call-ins
was exactly the same at 17. However,
your training improved your "appointments
made" from eight to 12. Your
training on ideas used to boost "appointments kept" improved that number from
four to eight. Finally, your focus on "wowing the patient" during all phases of the
first encounter improved your "patient starts" from two out of four, to six out of
eight. So without increasing your marketing, you increased "patient starts" from two
to six based on your ability to measure your results. It would look like this:
Call-in or walk-ins:
|
17 |
Number of appointments:
|
12 |
Number of appointments kept:
|
8 |
Number of new patients: |
6 |
My point is that what is watched improves. How can you possibly improve some
aspect of your practice if you do not first measure it? If you do one thing differently
as a result of reading this article it should be to routinely measure key components of
your business. After you have determined what facets of your practice need to be analyzed,
put systems and training in place to provide you and your team with the results
you deserve!
Author's Bio |
Gary Johnson, executive vice president of DynaFlex, has more than 20 years experience in business management and leadership, and
currently holds two MBAs. For the past three years, he has managed and directed the entire sales and marketing effort at DynaFlex
in domestic and international markets. Mr. Johnson regularly consults with practices throughout the United States on leadership,
marketing and creating the ultimate patient experience.
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